AU764087B2

AU764087B2 - Telecommunications billing method

Info

Publication number: AU764087B2
Application number: AU23689/99A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Stephen Scott
Original assignee: 1900 Live Pty Ltd
Current assignee: 0055 Management Services Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1998-04-09
Filing date: 1999-04-09
Publication date: 2003-08-07
Anticipated expiration: 2019-04-09
Also published as: AU2368999A

Description

Um /UU/U11n 2(291 Regulation 3.2(2)

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Application Number: Lodged: Invention Title: TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILLING METHOD The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us 1 TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILLING METHOD TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to a billing and/or credit and/or payment system and method, of the type used to access and/or use telecommunications network based services, particularly for controlling bad debts and more particularly to controlling bad debts relating to the use of premium rate telephone services, such as 1900 telephone services.

BACKGROUND ART Currently one method telecommunication service providers use to bill their customers is on an invoice. Under this method the service provider monitors and tallies the calls made, and times them if necessary, and sends a statement to the client at regular intervals, charging them according.

One problem with this approach is that because the calls made are typically charged on a time basis, some customers may run up large bills without realising this and then refuse or are unable to pay the bill. Similarly, some customers have large bills run up on their accounts by unauthorised users and then seek to avoid paying the bill. The problem of obtaining payment in these situations stem from the difficulty of establishing that the customer actually made *:the call(s).

20 This problem has been extremely pertinent in Australia with 1900 services.

1900 service providers provide telecommunication services including advice and entertainment services to the general public via particular phone numbers. The 1900 service provider is allocated numbers from a telecommunications carrier.

The telecommunications carrier then monitors the calls made to the 1900 numbers, and bills the customers on their existing phone accounts. A problem encountered with telecommunications services and particularly with 1900 numbers is that the customers not uncommonly deny that the calls were even made and then refuse to pay their account in relation to these services.

Any discussion of documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this 30 specification is included to explain the context of the invention. It should not be taken as an admission that any of the material formed part of the prior art base or the common general knowledge in the relevant art in Australia on or before the priority date of the claims herein.

It is an object of the present invention to alleviate at least one of the problems of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION According to one aspect, the present invention provides: a method for enabling or verifying the provision of telecommunication services for consumers who have previously established a credit limit for such telecommunication services, including the steps of: identifying a user of an access line using Calling Line Identification (CLI); determining the available credit corresponding to the user; comparing the available credit with the users predetermined credit limit; and in the event the available credit has reached or is nearing zero, requesting further funds and obtaining verification of payment from the user for a given amount in respect of telecommunication services already provided or yet to be provided by associating the CLI with the verification.

According to a second aspect, the present invention provides a method for enabling or verifying the provision of telecommunication services for consumers who have previously established a credit limit for such telecommunication services, including the steps of: 20 identifying a caller requesting the use of the telecommunications services using Calling Line Identification (CLI); S° °determining the available credit corresponding to the identified caller; comparing the available credit with the identified callers predetermined credit limit; and in the event that the available credit has reached or is nearing zero, requesting authorisation from the identified caller to transfer an agreed amount of funds from an account; and obtaining verification of payment from the identified caller for the agreed C amount.

30 According to a third aspect, the present invention provides a method for limiting accumulated debts resulting from the provision of telecommunication services including the steps of: establishing a credit limit for the provision of telecommunication services for individual users and associating the credit limit with a calling line; identifying a caller requesting the use of the telecommunications services using Calling Line Identification (CLI); determining the available credit corresponding to the identified caller; and in the event that the available credit has reached or is nearing zero, requesting authorisation from the identified caller to transfer an agreed amount of funds from an account; and obtaining verification of payment from the identified caller for the agreed amount.

According to a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a method for enabling or verifying the provision of telecommunication services including the steps of: establishing a credit limit for the provision of telecommunication services for individual users and associating the credit limit with a calling line; identifying a caller requesting the use of telecommunication services using Calling Line Identification (CLI), monitoring the available credit associated with the calling line by checking the balance of a charge record corresponding to the identified calling line and if 20 the available credit has reached or is nearing a predetermined limit, requesting the caller to select a payment option and authorise payment of funds to increase the available credit; and upon authorisation and verification of payment, update the caller's charge record and continue the call; or if payment is not authorised, terminate the call and prevent further access to telecommunication services.

*The present invention may be applied to any telecommunication services, non-exhaustively including local calls, value added calls, premium rate calls, international call, internet access and 1900 calls.

30 The invention is based on the principle of using line and/or caller identification, such as calling line identification (CLI), in conjunction with the caller verifying costs association with the call as a means of verifying the provision of their services with the caller. In this way, the CLI serves to identify the service I

I

2b provider the line used and the caller verifying the costs by way of a code or other action, such as pushing a button, confirms the caller's acceptance of the costs.

Comprises/comprising and grammatical variations thereof when used in this specification are to be taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components or groups thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

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i ooo BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING One preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawing showing a flow chart of the operation of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION According to the flow diagram of the present invention, when a person dials a number to make a call calling line identification (CLI) is captured in a carrier's network or the termination equipment where a service provider may access the CLI information, so that the identity of the calling party may be determined Therefore the "service provider" may be a telecommunications carrier, a premium rate service provider or any other party who has access to the

CLI.

The expression "calling party" refers to the identity of the user as recorded by the carrier to be the owner or lessee of the handset or phone line as the case may be. In this regard, it is to be noted that the calling party may be calling from any means including a mobile phone, a terrestrial phone or via the Internet.

Once the service provider has determined the identity of the calling party via CLI, they are able to search their records to determine whether the calling party has a charge record with them (13) to determine whether or not the calling party is a new customer.

In the situation of the calling party being a new customer, then the calling party is allocated a new charge record (23) The charge record is used to monitor the funds available to the calling party. Before allocating a charge record to the new calling party, an internal or external credit check (24) may be run on the calling party based on the information provided by the CLI. If the service provider was prepared to accept the new customer, they may be allocated a predetermined charge limit (25) being a limit to which charges may be accrued without verification of payment being required.

The service provider would then check the balance of the charge record to determine whether funds were available: that is, whether the charge record was at or near the predetermined credit limit (14).

If funds are available, the call is enabled If the balance is at or near the predetermined credit limit, the service provider will request the calling party to authorise the payment of a given amount to an account For most users, phone line use, including phone use for 1900 services, is credited to an account with a telecommunications carrier, set up at the commencement of connection to the telecommunications services. It is to this account to which the payment of services may be authorised, although alternative payment means are possible, including authorising payment to an account related to a credit card or a prepaid account, such as a debit account.

Authorisation for payment may be undertaken a number of ways. According to one embodiment of the invention, the calling party may be requested to enter an authorisation action, such as pressing a button or entering a code, such as a PIN, voice code or account number in order to authorise the payment This button or code may be particular to the calling party, so that the service provider may compare the corresponding entered quantity with a corresponding recorded value linked to the calling party's CLI value or their charge record. If the authorisation is valid such as the values matching, then payment will be authorised for a given amount and the calling party's charge record updated, such as by being reduced by the given amount The given amount may be an amount nominated by the user or an amount fixed by the service provider.

Once this is done, the calling party is allowed access (20) to the telecommunications services until either the calling party ends the call (22) or their charge record is once again at or near the predetermined amount (14) (ie the charge record may be incremented during the call in accordance with the call cost at which time payment authorisation will once again be sought.

In this regard, payment authorisation may be requested during the provision of the telecommunications services, by interrupting the connection. Once payment has been authorised, the call would be recommenced.

However, if authorisation is rejected or the calling party refuses to authorise payment, or is unable to authorise payment, then the call will be terminated (17), and future access to those services may be barred.

In the event that the service provider relies on authorisation based on a code or PIN, and a new customer requests access to the service provider's services, the PIN may be separately provided to the new customer, such as to the name and address available through the CLI information via mail, in order to ensure that the person requesting the services is in fact the owner of the account.

It is to be noted that the costs incurred for a call may be limited in any manner. For example, the charges for the call may be monitored daily, monthly or any other basis prior to authorisation for payment being sought.

In addition, it is preferable that all the steps of the present invention are performed automatically, without any need for intervention by an operator. Such an automatic application may be effected by a hardware/software implementation of the invention.

An advantage of the present invention is that the service provider is not burdened with large unsecured debts. For each calling party, the most that a debt is allowed to amount to, without receiving authorisation, is the "predetermined amount", which may be set at the discretion of the service provider. For example, a predetermined amount of $30 may be reasonable.

A further advantage of this invention is that it allows owners of telecommunications accounts to monitor the extent of charges made either by themselves or others on their phone line. That is, it prevents unauthorised persons using the phone and recording a large debt. It also allows regular users of telecommunications services to monitor the charges they are incurring and to ensure that it is maintained at a financially manageable level.

It will be recognised that the preferred embodiments described in the foregoing material (and annexed drawing) is intended to be merely illustrative and not limiting. Many variations to these preferred embodiments may be possible without departing from the broad concept of this invention.

For example, other methods of determining the identity of the calling party are possible, such as using calling number display information. However, if this information is to be used to any degree of success, the calling party's cooperation is required as they have the option of not transmitting their identity under this approach. CLI is therefore a preferred approach, as the calling party has no control over whether or not this information is sent.

Another variation that may be possible is for the user to authorise payment 6 before the services are provided, particularly if the user considers that the charges that they will incur may exceed the service provider's predetermined credit limit. If this is done, then the user may prevent authorisation interruptions during the provision of the services. In this way, the calling party is using their charge record as a debit facility, rather than a limited credit facility.

In a further alternative embodiment, instead of the calling party authorising payment during the call for access, the calling party may be asked to phone a fixed rate premium rate number to authorise payment, once again by pressing an appropriate button or entering a particular code. They would then have to redial the access number in order to continue access to the services.

A further possible variation of the present invention is to distinguish between individual users on a particular line by giving all users a different PIN. Therefore, with a particular CLI, there may be associated a number of PINs, for example one for each member of a household. This would then allow multiple users of one line S to individually control and authorise their use of the telecommunications services.

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Claims

1. A method for enabling or verifying the provision of telecommunication services for consumers who have previously established a credit limit for such telecommunication services, including the steps of: identifying a user of an access line using Calling Line Identification (CLI); determining the available credit corresponding to the user; comparing the available credit with the users predetermined credit limit; and in the event the available credit has reached or is nearing zero, requesting further funds and obtaining verification of payment from the user for a given amount in respect of telecommunication services already provided or yet to be provided by associating the CLI with the verification.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining verification further includes the user providing an authorisation action.

3. A method for enabling or verifying the provision of telecommunication ~services for consumers who have previously established a credit limit for such telecommunication services, including the steps of: identifying a caller requesting the use of the telecommunications services using Calling Line Identification (CLI); determining the available credit corresponding to the identified caller; comparing the available credit with the identified callers predetermined credit limit; and in the event that the available credit has reached or is nearing zero, requesting authorisation from the identified caller to transfer an agreed amount of funds from an account; and obtaining verification of payment from the identified caller for the agreed amount.

4. A method for limiting accumulated debts resulting from the provision of telecommunication services including the steps of: establishing a credit limit for the provision of telecommunication services for individual users and associating the credit limit with a calling line; identifying a caller requesting the use of the telecommunications services using Calling Line Identification (CLI); determining the available credit corresponding to the identified caller; and in the event that the available credit has reached or is nearing zero, requesting authorisation from the identified caller to transfer an agreed amount of funds from an account; and obtaining verification of payment from the identified caller for the agreed amount.

A method for enabling or verifying the provision of telecommunication services including the steps of: establishing a credit limit for the provision of telecommunication services for individual users and associating the credit limit with a calling line; identifying a caller requesting the use of telecommunication services using Calling Line Identification (CLI), monitoring the available credit associated with the calling line by checking the balance of a charge record corresponding to the identified calling line and if the available credit has reached or is nearing a predetermined limit, requesting the caller to select a payment option and authorise payment of funds to increase the available credit; and upon authorisation and verification of payment, update the caller's charge record and continue the call; or if payment is not authorised, terminate the call and prevent further access to telecommunication services until payment is made. "0

6. The method of claim 5 wherein immediately prior to said monitoring step: determining whether charges for telecommunication services are calculated at a fixed or per minute rate; and determining the charges incurred for the telecommunication services provided. 9

7. The method of claims 1 to 6 used in association with premium rate services such as 1900 telephone services.

8. An apparatus for carrying out the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. A method according to any one of claims 1, 3, 4 or 5 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying Figure.

An apparatus according to claim 8 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying Figure.

11. A method as substantially hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying Figure.

12. An apparatus as substantially hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying Figure. DATED this 17 th day of June 2003 1900 LIVE PTY LTD WATERMARK PATENT TRADE MARK ATTORNEYS 290 BURWOOD ROAD HAWTHORN VICTORIA 3122 0 AUSTRALIA RLT/CAG/MBL/res 0